RECOGNITION OF SERVICE

Taranaki Daily News, 3 January 1930, Page 3

RECOGNITION OF SERVICE

KING'S NEW YEAR HONOURS

SEVERAL PEERAGES CREATED

DETAILS OF THE BRITISH LIST.

British Wireless

Rec. 5.5 p.m. Rugby, Dec. 31. The list of New Year honours includes several new peerages, which are being conferred upon Major Dudley Aman, who unsuccessfully contested the Faversham scat for the Labour Party at the general- election; Sir Willoughby Dickinson, who was formerly a Liberal member of Parliament and a prominent member of the London County Council, who is now honorary secretary of the world alliance for the promotion of international friendship through the churches, and who has been closely identified with the League of Nations Union; Sir William Noble, ex-president of the Chamber of Shipping; Arthur Ponsonby, Under-Secretary for Foreign Affairs in the Labour Government of 1924 and now Parliamentary secretary to the Minister of Transport'; Sir Hugh Trenchant, Air Marshal, and Sir Charles Wakefield, who have done much for aviation.

There is one new Privy Councillor, Viscount Goschen, lately Governor of Madras.

The new baronets include Louis Bernhard Baron, son of the late Bernhard Baron, a millionaire tobacco magnate, for his public and philanthropic services; Sir Gregory Foster, recently vice-chancellor of the London University, and Sir Eustace Tennyson Dennycourt, formerly director of naval construction.

Among the new knights are Nigel Davidson, legal secretary to the Soudan Government; .Archibald Flower,’chairman of the governors of the Shakespeare National Memorial Theatre, Strat-ford-on-Avon; John Ritchie, chief im spector of Customs and Excise; Frederick Wall, Secretary of the Football Association.

Other honours include the. following:' Order of. the Bath,—Knight Grand Cross, Admii-al Sir William Gopdenough. . Knights Commanders.—General Lewis Halliday, Lieut.-General Sir Percy Radcliffe, Lieut.-General Kenneth Wigram (Indian Army), and Lieut.-General Cyril Macnullen (Indian Army). Order of the Star of India.—Knight Grand Commander/ Field-Marshal Sir William Birdwood, Commander-in-Chief. Order of Saint Michael and Saint George.—Knights Grand Cross, Sir Horace Byatt, lately Governor of Trinidad, and Sir Malcolm Robertson, lately Ambassador at' Buenos Aires.

Knights Commanders. —Sir James Maxwell, Governor of Northern Rhodesia, Lieut.-Colonel Andrew Balfour, director of the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, Sir Edward Crowe, Controller-General of the Overseas Trade Department, and Frederick Leith Jloss, deputy-Controllcr of Finance at the Treasury, for services, in connection with reparations. i > Imperial Order of the Crown of liidia.—Viscou nte s s G esc h en.

Royal Victorian Order.---Knights Grand Cross. Duke of Beaufort, Sir Frederick Milner and Admiral Sir Colin Keppel. Order of the British Empire.—Grand Knight Grand Cross. Admiral Sir Edward Bridford (retired); Dame Commander, Lady Bailey, for services to aviation; Knight Commander. Harry Fox, commercial councillor of the British Legation at Pekin; Sir Frank Badeley, chief secretary to the Government of Nigeria.

DOMINION RECIPIENTS

SOME BIOGRAPHICAL NOTES

SIR MICHAEL MYERS, K.C.M.G.

The Hon. Sir. Michael Myers, K.C., K.C.M.G., was appointed Chief Justice of New Zealand in sucession to the late Hon. Sir Charles Skerrett in April last. Au outstanding member of the legal profession, Sir Michael’s career has been one of brilliant achievement. •Born in Motueka on September 7, 1873, he is a son of the late Mr. J. Myers, founder of the firm of Messrs. J. Myers, and Co., Ltd. He was educated at Thorndon School, Wellington College and Canterbury University College, distinguishing himself at the age. of 12 by winning—and topping the list -in -a primary education board scholarship, of which at that time only six were awarded. He attended Wellington College for five years, and in addition to winning another primary education board scholarship obtained various college exhibitions and scholarships, including the Turnbull scholarship. In 1892 Sir Michael joined the staff of Messrs. Bell, Gully and Izard, and graduated LL.B, four years later. In March, 1897, he was admitted, a barrister and solicitor of the Supreme Court, and in 1899 he was admitted to partnership in the firm. He remained as a member 1 of Messrs. Bell, Gully, Bell and Myers (altered in title in 1919 to Messrs. Bell, Gully, Myers and. O’Leary) until September, 1922, -when he became a King’s Counsel. ' Immediately after his admission to the Bar. in 1897 Sir Michael gained a substantial practice, ■ both as barrister and solicitor, and. for many years until 1910 he took a largo proportion of Crown cases, both criminal and civil. In 1921 Sir Michael, appearing with Messrs. McVeagh ami Johnstone, of Auckland, successfully defended the directors of the Dominion Portland Cement Company, Ltd, in a claim against them by the liquidator for about £200,000 damages. Sir Michael has also conducted cases before the Privy Council. In 1911 he successfully appeared for the respondent in the case of Allardyce v. Allardyce, and in 1926 he appeared in six cases, including the “flour” case, in all of. which he was successful.. Sir Michael enjoyed a considerable, amount of Parliamentary practice. He appeared for Mr. Hine in Connection with the charges made by him in the House of Representatives in 1910. He also acted in various election petitions.. He was in the Stratford election petition, Hine v. blasters, in 1920, in which the petitioner, for whom Sir Michael ap-. peared, was successful.. Mr. Masters, however, was returned at the now election. One of the last civil cases in which he took part, and whifeli' lasted for 18, days, was the arbitration t.b settle the value-of-the undertaking of the Hawerir Electric Light Company'for the pur-

poses of a proposed purchase by the South 'Taranaki Electric Power Board. Sir Michael acted for the board. i Oh the same day as he entered into the partnership of Messrs. Bell, Gully, Bell and Myers, August 2, 1899, Sir Michael married Miss Salorn, daughtc* of the late Hon. Maurice Salorn, M.L.(&“ of Adelaide, South Australia.

SIR THOMAS SIDEY r , K.B.

The Hon. Sir Thomas Sidey, K. 8., Attorney-General and Minister of Justice, is best known in New Zealand as the “father" of the Summer Time Act. Born in Dunedin, he received his early education at Napier and then attended Barrett’s Collegiate School in Dunedin, the Otago Boys’ High School, and Otago University. He graduated in arts and law, and subsequently established the legal firm of Messrs. Sidey and Collier. In 1901 Sir Thomas entered Parliament as a Liberal representative for Dunedin South, .and retained the seat until, the time of his retirement at the end of the 1928 Parliament.

In the House of Representatives ha sponsored a number of legislative proposals, the chief of which was his Daylight Saving Bill, which after years of persistent fighting, found its way in 1927 on to the Statute Book, and is now a permanent law. For daylight saving city workers and. - sports bodies will ever thank its main advocate. Sir Thomas also was a pioneer in bringing before the House indeterminate sentence propo- .' sals in criminal cases. Other records associated with his earlier life in Parliament include the defeat by him, in successive divisions, of his own Government on the question of the withdrawal of the sinking funds of local bodies from the hands of their own sinking fund commissioners, irrespective of whether the loans were Government-guaranteed loans or not. Sir Thomas had moved to . restrict the proposal to State-guaran-teed loans. Outside of politics he has held many public offices of importance. At the end of the 1928 Parliament Sir Thomas did not recontest the Dunedin/ South seat, it being his intention to retire from the field of active, 'politics. With the return to office of the United Party, however, Sir Joseph. Ward included Sir. Thomas in his Cabinet as Leader of the Legislative Council and AttorneyGeneral, which offices he has since held. In the reallocation of portfolios last month following.. the.. Hon. T.. M. Wilford’s appointment as High Commissioner for New Zealand in London, Sir Thomas was appointed also Minister of Justice.

MR. E. W. KANE, C.M.G.

Mr. Edward William Kane, C.M.G., was born in .Wellington, the. youngest son of the date Henry Russell and. Catherine Howard Kane, who were prominent early settlers in New Zealand, having arrived in Wellington in 1850. Of ft family of six Mr. Kane is now the sole survivor. He was educated first at the Catholic School, Thornclon, and later at a higher school directed by Mr. J. H. Brann. After leaving school Mr. Kane was articled to the late Mr. M. Ollivier, barrister and solicitor, and was his managing clerk for ten years. After a breakdown in health he joined, the Parliamentary staff as a coimiiittee clerk in .'lBB6, and has remained attached to the Legislative Department since. Mr. Kane, has successively served as committee clerk, reader . and clerk of Bills, second* clerk-assistant, clerk-assistant, and for the last nine years has held the position of Clerk of the House of Representatives. Upon the death of Mr. A. F. Lowe, C.M.G.," Mr. Kane was last month appointed Clerk of Parliaments, Clerk of the Legislative Council and Examiner of Standing Orders on Private/ Bills. Mr. Kane, who has had nearly 44 years’ continuous service, has now served longer than any official connected with Parliament, although there are two officers alive on pension who were in the service before Mr. Kane joined the Legislative Department. Last year Mr. Kane, who is a Justice of the Peace, was made a life member of the Wellington Racing Club, of which he is one of the oldest members, having been elected in the early ’eighties. In 1921/. Mr. Kane married Mrs. Baume, the widow of F. E. Baume, K.C., of Auckland. -

DOYEN OF MUSICIANS.

The doyen of. Wellington musicians, Mr. Robert Parker, whom the King has been pleased to honour, has held. the respect and affection of the Wellington public for half a century, and though he considers that he has retired as a public figure, he is still (at 83) an active force in music as a master pedagogue arid as an organist and choirmaster of St. Paul’s Pro-Cathedral. With elderly folk the name of Robert Parker stands for all that is sane and elevating in music. For not only has he been an organist of rare ability/but for 40 years he was Wellington’s leading choral conductor. It was under his baton that most of the great oratorios, were originally sung in Wellington, and in that and other respects he has every right to be honoured —aye, and loved, as the grand old man of music in Wellington. . *.-/ Mr. Parker was born in London. in 1847, and received a" very sound musical training in the metropolis at the hands of the late W. S. Hoyte., and Scotson Clark. He studied the 'violin, organ, pianoforte, as well as choral work under these teachers. He gained r. scholarship which ensured him the opportunity for further study at Queen’s College, Cambridge, where he became organist. Subsequently he became professional'assistant' to Dr. W. 11. Monk, of King’s College, London. ' • Coming to New Zealand in 1860, Mr. Parker first settled at Christchurch, removing to Wellington about eight years later. He was appointed organist and choirmaster of St. Paul’s in 1878, and has held. the position ever since.

MH. A.'A. LUCKHAM

Mr. Luckham was an English officer of the Third Dragoon Guards, who resigned from his. regiment and came to New Zealand shortly . before the outbreak of the war. Almost as soon as the conflict started he was appointed assistant adjutant at Trentham Camp. Under ,Colonel 11. 11. Potter he became adjutant and continued to serve in that capacity at Trentham till the close of the war.. In 1920 Mr. Luckham was appointed Resident Comiuisioner at Aitu* taki, in the Cook Islands, and for the past seven years he has held a similar position on ' Niue Island.